First step taken to eliminate second generation cut-off from Indian Act – LakelandToday.ca
December 3, 2025
LAKELAND – A bill intended to return status to approximately 3,000 to 5,000 people could have much broader implications following an amendment at a senate committee, but it’s still the first step in a larger process.
Alberta Senator Scott Tannas is one of the members of the Standing Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples. In an interview with Lakeland This Week on Nov. 21, he explained Bill S-2 was originally written as a correction to the ongoing discrimination in the Indian Act challenged under Nicholas v. Canada in 2021.
According to the First Peoples Law website, the Nicholas lawsuit was about people whose ancestors were voluntarily enfranchised – they gave up their status in exchange for the right to vote or own land. These people continued to be excluded when the Indian Act was revised in 1985 to restore status to women who married non-Indigenous men. The 1985 changes also gave First Nations bands control over their membership lists.
